Christian devotion blog (Monday – Friday)…

Main menu

Post navigation

DayBreaks for 5/23/16 – Spiritual Addicts

DayBreaks for 5/23/16 – Spiritual Addicts

From the DayBreaks archive, May 2006:

Philippians 2:3 (NIV) – Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Isn’t the price of gasoline outrageous these days? Here in Cloverdale, as I write this, it’s $3.29 per gallon for regular unleaded at the cheapest stations. There are stations in town that are more than willing, and who are, charging even more. But I usually go to the cheaper stations, especially now that gas is so expensive!

But there is somewhat of a risk with doing so, I suppose. I’m not getting that brand that has Techroline built into it! (Even so, I’m not losing sleep at night wondering if my valves are suffering from deposits!) Not all gasoline is as good as others, I’m sure. And that’s the point: not all fuel is good fuel.

We can have bad fuel spiritually, too. I recently spoke from John 5:1-15 about the healing of the royal official’s son. The man came to Jesus, which was wise, but he came for one reason – he wanted his little boy to be healed. He didn’t want Jesus – just what Jesus could give him or do for him. Bad spiritual fuel is “living only for the after effects of our relationship with God, rather than for God Himself. As new Christians we experience a rush of feelings: peace, joy, happiness, warmth, excitement, contentment, and a host of others. Over time we inadvertently become dependent upon these feelings to sustain our spiritual well-being. We begin pursuing the feelings we receive from God rather than pursuing God himself. This is dangerous, because as Simone Weil once remarked: ‘There is a great danger in loving God as the gambler loves his game.’ We can become spiritual-experience junkies, pursuing one spiritual fix after another just to get us through the day.” – Second Guessing God, Brian Jones

How much of my pursuit of God is really just self-interest cleverly disguised? Do I really only seek Him for what I hope and pray that He’ll give me and do for me? Or do I want Him – and nothing else?

PRAYER: Help us, Almighty Father, to drink deeply of the well that is the Water of Life. Help us to desire the Bread of Life and not just bread. Let us be satisfied with nothing more, and nothing less, that all that You are. In Jesus’ name, Amen.